Kashgar Overview

“Kashi” is the short form of Kashgar in mandarin , it’s more than  5000km far from Beijing and more than  1460km far from Urumqi. BEIJING is the capital of China and Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang.
And it’s located of southwest of Tianshan mountain range , east part of Taklimakan desert which is the second largest desert in the world all called desert of no return or dead sea ,covering an area of more than 337000 Square kms and west corner of Pamir Plateau. Elevation is 1220 meters above from sea level , landscape of Kashgar is very difficult , south part is lower and north part higher.
 Climate of Kashgar is very dry because the area surrendered by the famous Kunlun mountain range and average level of the Kunlun Mountain is 3500 meters to 4000 meters above sea level and there are many high peaks over 6000 to 7000 meters high from sea level , and the humidity of the oceans can’t get through from those high peaks and made climate of Kashgar very dry. It has a temperate  of continental climate, with large periods of sunshine and little rainfall. With a short warm winter and a long cool summer, temperatures in the city are pleasant most of the year. The four seasons in Kashgar are very clear. The minimum temperature is -21 C  below zero and maximum is 40 centigrade above zero , The average temperature for the year is 11.8 C degrees, the average temperature of the coolest month of January is -12 degrees , and in the hottest month, July, the average temperature is 27 degree C, The average rainfall  is only 121mm, but the vaporation capacity amounts to 2162mm, and frostfree period lasts  about 224 days here. The best time to travel is between August and September, when the sky is blue and there is blossom and fruit on the trees.
The geographic advantage of Kashgar is very obvious because it borders to Pakistan, Afghanistan , Tajikistan , Kyrghyzstan, India. The length of border is888km . there are four national landborders ( Irkashtam, Khunjerab, Turghat and Karasu.)
The Sino-Kirgizstan border is only 149km called ‘’Torgat pass, and the other one is 212km called Irkeshtam or Simhana, both borders with Kirgizistan.The border
To Tajikistan is about 235km only.Border to great friend country Pakistan is only 500km from Kashgar city,or from your hotel. Among these borders ,only Konjirab border to Pakistan is open from May01st until 30th of Dec.others are almost open all the time both for tourists and trade goods..in our language Konjirab  means "valley of blood"
And the train came to Kashgar on Dec 06th,1999,which goes to our beautiful city Urumqi,which you just came from. Fast train takes 22hours and slower one takes 36hours only.
Apart from tha,t Kashgar international airport also woks from time to time.It flies to Islamabad from May 1st until,30th of Dec.
 
Kashgar is one of the ancient oasis and famous city in the west part of China,and it has more than 2000 years history.Why? We always say Xinjiang or Kashgar is one of of the unseperateable part of China?In 60 Bc,in the west Han dynasty,the emperor Hanxuandi made a order to setup a Guarding Governor House,and from that time Xinjiang already became part of China ,as well as Kashgar.
This city was called shulugh (shule) in the past times and this name was mentioned in many history books of Han dynasty and Tang dynasty. Even when the monk Tangshuanzang once he visited india to get the books of Buddhism he stopepped In here in 627 AD and mentioned the name of Kashgar as shule in his book and he said it’s one of the greatest and large countries among the 36 countries in the western region… Uighur historians began to call Kashgar after 714 AD by Amir Kutaiba’s entering for preaching a holy war of Islam who came from the Baghdad with thousand of Islamic soldiers , it was the time that Uighurs believe in Buddhism and there were many temples and buildings , all were decorated with beautiful glazed tiles , So, at that time Arabs called this city Kayishghar which the meaning is the home of tiles . Kayish is glazed-tile and Gar is home in Arabic language. Many linguists also give some different meaning for Kashgar just like The home of jade, because This city once became a center to sell jade for Europe and Asia. Jade is Kashtishi in Uighur and Yushi in Chinese language.and in Chinese there is a word called ‘’WU YU BU FU’’,means ,if there is not a piece of jade in your house at least,you are not considered as a wealthy family,,.like home of Jade….of course our best number one jade comes from Kunlun mountain ranges[from Muztaghata],could match with Hotan jade and world famous.And it is true that jade brings luck for people ,that’s why almost all the Han Chinese friends are hanging a little piece of jade. Many historian also agree that Kashgar used to be called as Kashgar from the 8th century.
Kashgar belong to warm continent climate. Due to topography, the climate is quite different, roughly divided into five climatic zones. 1. Kashgar plain climate zone. This area includes the majority of Kashgar in the north and central plains region, the annual average temperature of 11.4 ℃ in a 11.7℃
Kashgar always has been a very famous city in the history, and many historian wrote books just about the Kashgar from 11th century to beginning of 20th century , all historians greatly admired the kashgar very well.. Kashgar had been center or Capital for the many different kingdoms during the different period of time and center of Economy, education , politics ,religion and many colorful culture of the world , and always used to be a bridge to connect east and west on the silk road in the passed times and mentioned as one of the marble cities on the western region.
 As you understand Kashgar has very special strategic location in the central Asia . from  the 60th year of the 19th century till middle of the 20th century, Kashgar became a kind of castle for Europeans to spy each-other
Like British and Russian invaders of the central Asia, so Kashgar also became the part of Great game in the central Asia which block the rout of the invaders, and western , European , and Asian adventures who stole the valuable relics and Christian preachers of Sweden made Kashgar as their home to do anything what they wanted to do as preaching Christianity among Muslims and they tried less than half century. And there were many scholars came from the different parts of the world stayed in the British consulate or Russian consulate and after they went wrote many books about the city and made it another famous.
 Kashgar covers an area of more than 162.000 km .
It’s one of the prefectures of Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region , it administers 11 counties and a city, population of Kashgar prefecture is more than 3 million 8 hundred thousand , and about 90% of them are Uighur, 8% is Han and others are 2% , they are , Kirghiz, Kazak, Hui, Uzbeks and Tajik…
 Uighur language belongs to the Uyghuric group of the Turkic language family, which is among the Altaic languages. The languages most closely related to Turkish, Kirghiz, , tatar, kazak , turkman, azarbaijan…etc. believe Islam and used to live in here for more than 2000 years , founded many different kingdoms. They are hard working people and very hospitable, very good dancing and singing .
 Kirgiz people mostly live on the north west of kashgar , almost nomads , we call them the nation on the horse.
Tajiks are different group , Tajik people have lived in the Taxkorgan area in the Pamirs and among the border of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan .They speak the Persian branch of the tajik family , belong to Indo European race.We call them the nations of the  Eagle,because they always have an eagle on you’re their right hand when they go for hunting.
Uzbeks are all very same people as Uighurs, there are no more differences ,like same culture, same language , but different dialect in Uzbekistan .
Kashgar ranks first in the whole region of Xinjiang for it’s traditional handicrafts , there are many kinds of exquisite and elegant handicrafts are found in this town such as embroidered hats for the minorities[we call them Doppa,badam doppa, tashkent doppa,etc] , the yingisar knives which are famous at home and abroad , musical instruments , and very famous hand woven wool and silk carpets… of Kashgar made and Khotan , central Asia, and Tibet , Mongolia  Ningxia, even beautiful color and famous design silk carpets of Iran and Turkey. Uighur craftsmanship is very famous at home and abroad with its tradition ..If you are lucky you may be find a nice piece of Kashgar locally made silk rug which helps to to fly.,ofcourse it is a joke.now adays it is very hard to find legendry flying carpets.
Uighur people are also very intelligent and hard working people , more than 90% are farmers , they worked very hard and created many different sorts of Grains,such as like cotton, wheat, rice , fruits vegetables, and many kinds of melons.[such as bishekshun=honey dew,and kara kokche] The famous fruits are apricot , Mulberry , cherry,, grapes, pomegranates , peers, and dark plums, some fruits are difficult to find in the other areas of Xinjiang, that’s why kashgar has a very big name as’’ Home of fruits of China . ‘’
Kashgar has rich of minerals resources such as coal , mica asbestos , limestone, natural sulphur , Titanium, Iron, copper, zinc, nickel, white marble … etc…
Oil deposits are considerably large and dozens of oil wells have been drilled in karghilik and poskam Counties
There are some historical sites which are famous at home and abroad , they are the largest mosque in China called Eidgah located in the center Of Kashgar, Apak hoja tomb, which is famous with another name like The Fragrant concubine tomb. It’s also the largest tomb in China. And largest live stock market only carried on Sunday and interesting highlights on your tour, the famous Sunday bazaar , which is very colorful and large market in the central Asia,in this market you will find how clever and how nice the Uygur people are.and their business skills are as good as jews.And they began to train children doing business when they are a little kid,like 7-8year old.,it is not for money ,but for their braveness and the guts and courage.,seeing is believing,I am sure ,you will be able to see them.